A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Regular blog readers may remember my earlier posts that I was co-editing, along with Prasanta Bandyopadhyay, the Fall 2017 edition of the APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies. The theme of the issue is “B. K. Matilal: The Continue reading APA Newsletter on B. K. Matilal Now Available!
I presented about Disengaged Buddhism at the International Association of Buddhist Studies conference in August. My talk was paired with a presentation by Frédéric Richard on a topic that did not initially appear to be related: the Tibetan government in Continue reading The political path vs. the Buddhist path
Preface to the 2017 Edition Since the original guide to Ph.D. programs in North America was first compiled in 2014, some scholars have been newly hired, have moved, or have retired, necessitating revisions to the list. Among these moves are: Continue reading The Philosophical Rasika Report: Listings of Ph.D. Programs in Indian Philosophy (2017 Edition; Part I: North America)
I am a big fan of Paul Ricoeur. It’s shame, I think, that he never learned Sanskrit, because he was deeply interested in a number of issues that were of critical importance to Indian thinkers: the production of meaning through Continue reading Hermeneutics, “Ricoeurian” and “Jaiminīya,” and the Question of Writing
Among the papers in the new issue is “(Close) the Door, the King (is Going): The Development of Elliptical Resolution in Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā” by our own Malcolm Keating. Congratulations, Malcolm! Entire contents here: https://link.springer.com/journal/10781/45/5?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals
The authors of Advaita Vedānta maintain that God, the impersonal brahman, is the only reality and that each hint of dualism or pluralism is due to māyā ‘illusion’. In other words, the absolute, the brahman, is the only reality and Continue reading Does anything exist according to Advaita Vedānta?
As many of you may have seen on Daily Nous, Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh) and Stephen Stich (Rutgers), along with anthropologist H. Clark Barrett (UCLA) have just been awarded a US$2.5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation. It will fund Continue reading The Geography of Philosophy
One of our blog members, Andrew Ollett, has recently published Language of the Snakes: Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India with University of California Press. Not only are congratulations in order for the book, but on his Continue reading “Language of the Snakes” available for download or purchase
(I am grateful for the following learned and thought-provoking guest post I received from Christophe Vielle, dealing with an emic way to define “Philosophy” in the Indian context. EF) Rājaśekhara’s classification of śāstras in the Kāvyamīmāṃsā, adhyāya 2 (śāstra-nirdeśa)*, is Continue reading Rājaśekhara on mīmāṃsā and ānvīkṣikī as two distinct types of philosophical śāstras—a guest post by Christophe Vielle
Last time I discussed Jan Westerhoff’s potent objection to naturalized Buddhism: if there is no rebirth then we can end our suffering simply by committing suicide. Westerhoff takes this objection as a reason to accept rebirth. I do not. Rather, Continue reading Beyond the removal of suffering